"Yes, that was it; though I haven't been able to remember it. They wouldn't believe me when I said I'd only met him quite casually at dinner, the night before I was kidnapped,--for I really was kidnapped, Maurice--and that I knew nothing whatever about him. They kept me in a dark cell for hours, till I was half-crazy with anger and terror; and then they brought me out, and I saw you, and father; and the next thing I knew I was in bed in an hotel we've often stayed at, in Berlin. Father tries to persuade me that I imagined the whole thing; but I didn't; now did I, Maurice? And what does it all mean?"
"It was all a mistake. You were taken for some one else; some one whom you resemble very closely."
"That's just what I thought; though father won't believe it; or he pretends he won't; but I am sure he knows something that he will not tell me. But there's another thing,--that dreadful man Cassavetti. Perhaps I oughtn't to call him that, as he's dead; I only heard about the murder a little while ago, and then almost by accident. Maud Vereker told me; do you know her?"
"That frivolous little chatterbox; yes, I've met her, though I'd forgotten her name."
"She told me all about it one day. Mary and Jim had never said a word; they seemed to be in a conspiracy of silence! But when I heard it I was terribly upset. Think of any one suspecting you of murdering him, Maurice,--just because he lived on the floor above you, and you happened to find him. You poor boy, what dreadful troubles you have been through!"
There was an interlude here; we had a good many such interludes, but even when my arm was round her, when my lips pressed hers, I could scarcely realize that I was awake and sane.
"It was just as well they did suspect me, darling," I said after a while, "or I most certainly shouldn't have been here now."
She nestled closer to me, with a little sob.
"Oh, Maurice, Maurice! I can't believe that you're safe here again, after all! And I feel that I was to blame for it all--"
"Because I flirted with that Cassavetti--at the dinner, don't you remember? That seemed to be the beginning of everything! I was so cross with you, and he--he puzzled and interested me, though I felt frightened just at the last when I gave him that flower. Maurice, did he take me for the other girl? And was there any meaning attached to the flower?"